


As One Falls...

by S1D3S



Series: The Adventures of Khori La'Mari [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Clubbing, Crimes & Criminals, F/M, Gang Violence, Guns, Major Original Character(s), Running from cops, Some sexual bits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26277586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S1D3S/pseuds/S1D3S
Summary: Darius loves his wife. He worships her. When he finds out someone has been stealing from her side business, things get dirty. It's even worse when the cops show up. However, Darius would see the world burn for her.
Relationships: Khori/Darius
Series: The Adventures of Khori La'Mari [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1909225





	As One Falls...

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize in advance.

I wiped the blood off my hands. “Are you deaf, Joey?” My back turned to the hunched body. The only thing keeping bloodied Joey in his place was a few strategically placed pieces of rope. “All ya gotta do is tell me where ya brother is.”

“Billy didn’t do nothin’,” he groaned. The words came out slurred, probably from the last blow to his face. A rattled brain is not exactly the best to subject to interrogation. 

I craned my neck to peek at him. Right eye swollen shut, blood flowing down from his nose, and rained onto his cheap polyester pants. I turned to face him fully, propping up against the metal table. My sleeves were rolled up to my elbows. My wife would kill me if I ruined another dress shirt. “Listen, Joey, I like ya. I really do. You work hard. But ya brother stole from my wife, and that ain’t gonna fly.” In a burst of movement, I grabbed his collar and pulled him to meet my eyes. “Tell me where I can find Billy or die in his place.

“I swear to ya, Darius, Billy didn’t steal anything.” 

Dragging the blade of a rusted boning knife off the table, I absently tossed it into the air and caught by the handle repeatedly. “I want to believe you, Joey. I really do. But the only people with access to the back room at Nyx, other than Khori and myself, are you, Billy, and the Twins. Now we both know my wife has those twins wrapped around her pretty fingers. You didn’t take the money and shipment plans. You ain’t smart enough.” I swung the knife as soon as it landed back in my hand into the back of his hand, between the bones. Dismissing his yowl, I continued, “That leaves Billy. It didn’t take us long to figure out what he needed them for.”

“Billy would neva snitch to some blues.”

I breathed out a laugh. “Blues can be bought. Roshad, on the other hand, is a smarter choice.” Markus Roshad. Another dime a dozen gang leaders that despised the power we held. “A shipment missing, ya brother gone, and Roshad’s up in finances. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who the rat went running to, Joey.”

Joey heaved in air as I withdrew the blade. “Even if I knew where Billy was,” Joey struggled to state, “he’d be long gone by now.”  
“I don’t think so. He wouldn’t leave you and the Misses behind to suffer in his place.”

I grimaced as he spits and splattered blood and saliva across my face. He gave me a sanguinary grin. “I ain’t sayin’ shit.”

I pushed him back hard enough to topple the chair. I reached for my favorite item laying on the cold tabletop. Polished, silver knuckle-dusters. They were a gift from my wife on our one-year anniversary. They gleamed with malevolent intention as I slid them over my knuckles, hiding the emerging bruises. I knelt and straddled his heaving chest. With no hesitation, I punched his deteriorating face. I began to wail on him. Left, right, left, left. A crack thundered through the concrete room. I broke his jaw, his nose, something. 

“Darius.” 

I stopped mid-punch. My fist just short of his mangled mug. 

“Darius, my love. That’s enough.” Khori, my wife, walked over to us. Her heels thundered louder than Joey’s snapping bones. Her arm snaked across my shoulder and nestled around my neck, tracing lines along my pulse. “If he wants to die, he will. But not now.” She pushed my face in her direction. The unrelenting light haloed around her, alighting her vermillion, wild hair aflame. It collided beautifully with her tawny skin and opal dress. She was divine. 

“Boss,” the rat underneath me whined.

Khori never glanced below me, her eyes glued to my red smeared face. “You had your chance, Joey. Since you wanna disrespect my husband and my business, you can set a reminder to our staff.” With the hand not occupied, she waved two of our men over, the Twins: Toni and J.J.

I moved off the blubbering bastard and placed the bloody dusters back on the table. I didn’t glance up as Toni dragged him away. I felt Khori’s claws travel up my back and her body come to rest against me. “I had him.”

She hummed and the vibrations trailed across my skin. “I know.”

“Why didn’t you let me handle it?”

She tugged on my belt loops until I was facing her. She placed her palm on my cheek, rubbing her thumb across my lower lip. “Any disrespect to you is a direct insult to me. I can’t let that go unanswered, Darius.” 

I turned away from her touch. 

A sigh escaped her lips. “Darius, we live in a delicate ecosystem. Hierarchy has to be maintained, my love.” 

Sneering, “Fuck ya hierarchy. I had him!”

Khori snatched my face. Her face twisted into a hell stopping jeer. “This is my club, my business, my men. And you are my husband. And I—"

“I don’t need your help! I definitely don’t need you—”

Her hand twisted to grip my face intensely, nails casually digging into my jaw. She dragged my face to hers. “Now, darling, let’s not argue. What’s done is done.” Flashing an acidic smile, Khori crashed her lips on mine. Filled to the brim with aggression and manipulation, her kiss tasted like ambrosia, addictive but deadly to a mortal man. “You’ll always need me.”

She wasn’t wrong. I would always need her like an addict always needs their fix. “Till the day they put a bullet in my head.” 

“Boss,” J.J. began, “we know where Billy’s hiding.” J.J. was a bit shorter than his brother. With a deeper voice and lighter eyes, J.J. could be seen as different from his brother, but only if you cared enough to see them as different and not carbon copies.

Khori hummed indifferently, tucking her head under my chin. “That was fast.”

“Turns out Billy’s girl was sleepin’ with his brother. Ain’t that a kicker?” A shot rang out and echoed through the hall. Another bounced around soon after. “Billy’s up at their old man’s property upstate. Turns out he did leave them behind to suffer in his place.” 

My wife moved away from me with a sigh. She brushed away a few stray curls from her gleaming eyes. “Tell Frenchie to get her girls and collect the rat bastard. We need to grab him before the pigs do.”

I snaked my arm around her waist as J.J. left. I lifted her onto the table. Her thighs placed against my waist, a perfect fit. The color of her dress fading into a bloodstained pink as the memory of the previous interrogation soaked into the fabric. I tenderly brushed away the smoldering curls off her neck exposing the honeyed skin. She allowed my fingers to dance across the exposed flesh. I felt her eyes observing my face. 

Khori’s hands trailed across my neck and inched into my hair. Her nails dragging across my scalp. It almost snatched my attention away from indiscriminate nips I colored across her shoulder. She tugged on my hair, haling my head away from her neck. Slithering away from my scalp, she cupped my face and used one hand to thumb my lips. “Kiss me.”

I snatched the air from her lungs. I pushed against the curve of her back, ensuring that her body crashed into mine. Blindly, I pushed everything behind Khori off the table. The clattering was ignored in favor of pushing her back against the metal top. Hair sprawled out like a bloody halo, she personified temptation. 

“Blood looks good on you. Brings out your eyes,” Khori smirked. She grabbed my shirt and brought me down to finish what I started. She threw her leg around my waist. Her heel digging in as I caught her by the thigh. I pushed my hands up her thighs, sneaking past her dress.

“Darius,” she pulled away. “Stop.” 

I halted immediately. I straightened up as my wife moved until she was leaning on her elbows. She put her finger to her lips before pointing up. I held my breath for a moment, trying to hear past the concrete separating us from the main floor in Nyx above us. I didn’t hear anything at first. Silence crept by for a few seconds. Then, muffled yelling sank through like a TV blaring from three rooms over. The yelling was covered by an overbearing sound, like dulled fireworks. Gunfire. 

“Shit,” I hissed as I moved my wife off the table. She straightened out her dress as I made my way to the door. The hallway was clear as far as I could tell. I reached across the table and grabbed one of the knives still strewn about. I grabbed Khori by the shoulders, angling the knife away from her. “Stay behind me. A knife in a gunfight isn’t exactly ideal.”

“Where’s the gun Toni got for you?”

“Upstairs in the back room.”

Khori smacked my shoulder repeatedly. “What good is it upstairs?!” 

I sent her an annoyed glance before turning back to the vacant hallway. “Next time I interrogate someone, I’ll be sure to bring it along.”

Footsteps clattered down the hall. They were getting louder in an unsteady rhythm. Two sets, both male. I steadied the grip I had on the blade as they approached. Waiting until I was absolutely sure that they were in striking range, I quickly turned the corner into the hall and snatched the closest one to me, knife raised and angled for his jugular. 

“Boss! Boss, it’s us!” Toni held his hands up halting my weapon just a few inches away from his skin. He had a gun gripped loosely in his left hand. I tilted my head over. J.J. had his pointed out me. I’m assuming out of reflex. “Markus and his boys are upstairs raiding the place. We came back down to get you two out of here.” 

I released him before stepping back into the room. Khori was sitting on the table, picking at her claws. “We need to go.”

Without looking up, she asked “Pigs?”

“Preferably, but no. According to the twins, Markus.”

She sighed and jumped down. “He is such a cockblocker. I’ll personally skin him for this.” Khori slipped off her heels before tossing them away. She sashayed over to the switches on the wall, flipping the middle one and turning on the sprinklers. She flipped the switch back off after a minute. “Ruining a moment with my husband, crashing my club. He’ll be paying for the damages after I finish with him.,” she stood next to me in the hall, slightly wet from the gasoline that rained down. “Torch it.”

J.J. pulled a match box from his pocket. As my wife started to walk away with Toni, away from where the twins came, J.J. tossed the lit match into the room. He and I moved away as quickly as possible before the flames ignited instantaneously. 

The four of us ran through Nyx’s basement in a line: Toni, Khori, J.J., and then me. The smoke chased us through every turn. It crawled slowly. My wife’s feet pelted against the paved floors, an incentive to keep ahead of the slow death behind us.   
“Ma Khori,” Toni called as we slowed to a halt behind cellar doors leading to the outside. It was pouring. Everything was gray with hazes of color swirling from the neon lights. “Let me and J.J. go first.” The twins pushed open the doors and peaked out. J.J. looked to the left, and Toni the right. “I don’t see any blues or Markus’s boys.” Toni whispered. 

“None this way either.”

Toni lifted himself up to the alleyway behind Nyx. He kept close to the ground. Creeping closer to the right side of the building, he motioned to his brother, sending him to stalk around the other side.

Without warning, shouts and herds of footsteps bounced around the way we came. My head snapped around. Were they our guys? They weren’t close enough to tell, but they weren’t far enough way to not panic if they belonged to bastard raiding the club upstairs. 

I started pushing Khori up the stairs, “Go, baby. Go!” She scrambled as I followed behind. The rain quickly swallowed us as the cellar doors slammed together. I grabbed two aged metal rods lying forgotten in the alley. I crossed them between the handles, temporarily locking it. “That won’t hold them for long. It’s enough for a head start.”

Khori was shriving behind me. “Another dress ruined. It’s absolutely ruined.” 

I pulled her to me. “I’ll get you a new one, but we need to go.” 

Right on time, the twins came back around. “Left side’s a bit risky. Blues are crawling everywhere now. They got most of the girls. No signs of Roshad.”

Toni sighed, “Right side has to be a trap. Blues are scarce but the road’s blocked.”

Khori groaned, looking at her muddied feet. “We take the right alley. If I get glass in my fight, Imma be pissed.”

“Toni,” I held out my hand, “give me the gun. You stay in the middle with Khori. J.J. and I will take up the ends. Anything gets past us; you take her and bail.” 

“Of course. Ma is our top priority.” Toni handed over his weapon. Much like Khori, Toni was mostly brains, quick-witted and clever. J.J. and I on the other hand were considered the muscle. 

We moved quietly. We planned to take this alley for a few blocks and head up towards Central, blend in with the tourists. By now, the rain would’ve washed any blood left on my face. Locals would dismiss us as idiotic tourists who got stuck in the rain. Get a room at the motel. Now, the fire in the basement would’ve spread into the adjacent rooms, scorching Joey and his brother’s wife. No one could place us at our club. 

It feels like I’m forgetting something.

“Freeze!”

Pigs split into groups for situations like this. 

There were just two of them. Both male, one pudgy and the other fresh out of the academy by the looks of it. Their backs were illuminated by city lights, casting a shadow over us. With the gun sticking out and pressing against my spine, I had to wait. J.J. and I were armed. Two shots had to be perfectly timed.

“Now officers, what’s all this about?” Khori made her way into the light. The younger officer was intrigued by her drenched dress. 

“We were just having some fun.” Khori forced her words to slur together. She moved so she would teeter to the side. “Whoops,” she laughed. 

“Well ma’am,” the older officer started. “This area’s been blocked off. We can’t have any unknown personnel coming through here without being checked first.”

Khori giggled, “Oh, so like, dangerous police stuff. ‘M sorry. I lost ma shoes. Can ya help my brothers and I look?”

The officers looked at each other before brining their flashlights down to Khori’s very bare and very dirty feet. 

“Our sister kicked them off when we were trying to take her back to our hotel down by Central Plaza.” Toni stated. “We came back when we noticed they were gone. They belonged to our mother; you see.”

The officers remained motionless, flashlights still staring into our eyes. “Where were you coming from, son?”

“A pub down the street. We’ve been bar hopping. It’s our first time in the city.” Toni shot back. “Our sister’s a lightweight, so we cut   
the hopping early.”

The older officer sighed. “This area is being cleared, so we’ll escort back to your hotel. You can get your shoes in the morning.”

“I appreciate what you’re doing. Really, I do. But we can’t go back to the hotel until we get her shoes. Sentimental value and all.”  
Toni’s tone was tight. I wouldn’t describe him as a patient man, and it’s situations like this that only prove me right. Locked jaw, twitchy fingers, the boy was itching to just send the cops to the coroner and move on. 

“We’ll keep an eye out. If we find them, we’ll hold them for you at the station.”

Fat chance. They were burnt down into a pile of ashes, a pair of $300 heels wasted. This is what happens when you marry an expensive woman. She just burns money regularly. 

“Please, officers? Just another minute?” Khori pleaded. 

“Alright, but then you have to leave.” Both officers began to search around.

Khori leaned against me to keep up the act. “I think I kicked them off here. Or was it the street over?”

As we continued to search for shoes that were no doubt ashes long before now, Toni slipped behind me and took the gun. He and J.J. subtly moved positions until they were behind the cops. “Wait a minute,” the younger one started, “how were you looking for shoes without—"

Toni and J.J. fired. Twin shots rang out like a warning bell. The officers crumpled to the ground like a pyramid of cards, matching bullet wounds in their necks. The sound of bodies crashing into pavement was followed by barks of orders from a few buildings down. 

“We did not think this one through,” Khori groaned as we booked it back down the alley. Heavy footsteps followed. 

“Officers down! Get a bus!”

We took a sharp left down another alley between buildings. We emerged into a crowd moving around the blockade. I lifted Khori onto my back, while the twins slowed until they were several paces behind us. Blending in with basic civilians took little thought when someone plays this game as long as we have. 

Khori nestled her head into my neck. Her arms left to dangle lazily at her sides. “I could get used to be carried.”  
I glanced back at her, red hair protecting her face from outsiders. “If you ask nicely.”

We continued swimming through schools of tourists and drunk locals. To anyone else, I was carrying a poor drunk woman back to wherever she was staying. A few people stopped to give us more than a second of thought or a passing glance. They were easily pacified by Khori’s loud, slurred declaration of love and a sloppy kiss to the cheek. Once I was positive that we were in the clear, I turned out of the public eye. The twins followed soon after. I eased Khori back on her feet. 

“If Markus is still loose, we should avoid checking into anywhere Central.” J.J pulled out his phone. “We have the place in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s been empty for a while.”

Memories of a dangling body surfaced at the thought of the apartment. “He’s right. It hasn’t been used since the job we received from Harry’s wife. She really hated his mistress.”

Khori groaned. “Fine. I don’t like going back so soon, but if that’s all we got—"

“Don’t move,” an accented voice instructed. A lone figure stood at the beginning of the alley, silhouetted by the life of the city. Even with the shadows hiding their body, it wasn’t hard to deduce they had a gun trained on us. 

“Four against one. Odds aren’t in your favor, pal.” J.J. slipped his gun into my hand as we turned. He blocked half of me from view.   
“You’ve got some balls on you.”

Toni and I raised our weapons. J.J. stepped infront of Khori. She was boxed in between us and the end of the alley. 

“I think they’re quite average actually. We all know that even if I take just one of you out, the other three wouldn’t survive long after. Markus knows you like to play family.”

Shit. 

“You shoot. We shoot.”

The shadow chuckled. “Dead either way.”

I kept my gun gripped carefully with both hands. It was starting to get cold. Khori was only in her jeweled dress. Can’t have her getting sick. I hired two shots with experienced precision: one towards the elbow to divert the gun and the second shot aimed a little to right and up. The second shot went through the base of the would-be assassin's neck. Whether or not they die of suffocation or blood loss was up to chance. Their one retaliating shot veered off to left and grazed my shoulder. “Bitch,” I hissed.   
Khori turned my arm in her direction, paying no mind to the dying man on the ground. “It’s just a graze, you big baby. I’ll kiss it better when we get back.”

“Promise?” 

Khori smacked my chest. “We were interrupted earlier, weren’t we?”

The twins moved ahead. Toni waved back, “All good, Ma.”

Khori ran to meet them. The sooner we got out of this rain the better. I followed behind. Of course, it had nothing to do with the perfect view of my wife. She was beautiful. Little drops of rain bouncing off her and creating an image of a divine aura surrounding her, protecting her. A smile made its way across my face at the sight. I lived for her, and never questioned if she did the same.   
White.

White-hot pain tore through my abdomen. The sound of a firework flashed by my ears a second later. Blood poured into my mouth from my teeth ridden tongue. I fell to my knees or floated as it took a minute to find the ground. 

“Darius!” 

Another firework whizzed past me and popped into the bloodied body behind me. 

“Darius!” 

I slumped forward and crashed into the mud. My hands moved to the source of pain instinctively. Warm, red syrup soaked into my clothes until it eventually kissed the ground. 

“Darius, baby, hang on! Toni!” Khori sounded underwater. Or was I underwater? She pushed me onto my back. Her curls were flattened to her head and her makeup was smeared, but by God, she was gorgeous. 

“Khori,” I groaned. 

Her hands shook as they covered mine. My blood was leaking across her fingers. She kept staring at our hands. 

“Khori, look at me,” I choked. 

Her amber eyes drifted up to meet mine. Her mascara was running. I pretended it was the rain. Her breathing rattled across her lips. “Don’t—Don’t talk.” She turned her head back. “Toni!”

I scraped my hand away from the pulsing wound and reached for her face. I turned her back to me. Diamonds in her eyes and salt on her tongue, this isn’t what I wanted for her. She deserved the world, not death and desperation in a muddy alley. “You need to—to run.”

She adamantly shook her head now holding my hand to her face. “We’re—we’re gonna get you to Dr.C’s. I’m not leaving you. I promised.” The diamonds in her eyes dropped, crashing onto to my fading body. “I promised to make it better. I—”

“Kiss me.”

She leaned over. Feather light and delicate, she placed her lips over mine. They tasted salty with a side of cherry bomb gloss. She tried to pour her life into my lungs, tried to pour anything into my lungs. 

I watched as she sobbed into me, on her knees and burying herself into the filthy clothing clinging to me. I brought my hand up to her hair, smoothing it over with great difficulty on my part. It hurt to move. Everything was heavy and fading. I looked up to Toni and J.J. They both looked close to tears themselves. “Boys, take her—”

“No!”

“—and hide her.” Damn it, everything felt aflame. “Markus can’t know.”

Toni reached around Khori at her waist. He lugged her up, barefoot and kicking. 

“Put me down! I’m not leaving him! Toni!”

Toni continued to drag her away. She screamed and kicked. Knowing her, Toni will have a few new scars on his arms. She was a wild one. I could barely hear her demands. Hazy, underwater, bleak, blurry. The world was losing color. I was losing color. 

“We’ll take care of her, Boss.” J.J. hadn’t moved. 

“—love…her.”

“I’ll tell her.”

The rain...stopped.

J.J. came into view. Hazy shades of brown muddled his face. “See you in Hell, Boss.”

“Darius!”

Khori— give them—


End file.
